Page 27 of Unrivaled

El threw a pillow at him. Gru barked at it, wagged his tail like he’d done a great job, and then made an appeal for more belly rubs.

El fell for it. She was no more immune than Max was.

Time seemed to pass slowly, like the last drops of maple syrup clinging stubbornly to the bottom of the bottle. Max worked out, he practiced, he walked Gru, and he waited. He couldn’t remember the last time he was this pumped to play a preseason game.

So it really sucked when Coach told him the morning of the game that they were going to take another look at Jenssen, one of the rookies, so there was no reason for Max to make the trip to Philly.

He could go anyway and sit in the press box, but that would look suspicious. Most guys weren’t eager to travel with the team before they had to, especially during the preseason.

If he drove himself, he wouldn’t have to sit in the press box, and he wouldn’t have to figure out a way to get home. Grady’s dick was probably worth an hour of driving each way, though there was no way to know for sure without taking it for a test ride. It was probably even worth the chirping Grady’d give him for going so far out of his way to get it.

But something held him back. Hell, maybe he was still salty and wanted a way to inflict his own disappointment on Grady. Either way, he didn’t examine it, just pulled out his phone and texted,So, bad news.

You’re not playing tonight, Grady guessed.

Ur smarter than u look, Max replied. Then,Sorry.

Guess I can’t complain.

Max sighed and flopped back against the couch.

Gru looked up from the floor, one ear standing straight up, the other flopped over. He tilted his head to the side.

“Yeah, a walk’s a good idea,” Max agreed. “Come on.”

He ended up following the game on Twitter that night, sprawled out on his couch with Gru on his legs because he believed with his entire fifty-pound being that he was a lapdog. It was the opposite of their previous game, tied at nothing until Grady buried what turned out to be the only goal of the game five minutes from the final buzzer.

Max dropped his phone in disgust and ruffled Gru’s ears. “He probably would’ve been a beast tonight,” he said mournfully.

Gru licked his fingers and wagged his tail against Max’s knees.

“Not exactly the kind of action I was looking for,” Max told him. “I bet you’re a better cuddler, though.”

Gru rolled over for belly rubs and elbowed Max in the nuts.

“Or not,” Max wheezed.

BY THEthird first date, Grady was convinced he had missed a class at school or something. Maybe he’d been a terrible person in a previous life and this was his cosmic payback. Maybe the price for being really fucking good at hockey was his deplorable lack of social skills.

It was October now. Time was ticking down on his deadline to make holiday plans and make sure Jess got her girls’ trip. Two days after the last preseason game of the year, and Grady was sitting at a beer garden downtown, wishing he’d ordered a single pint so he could down it and leave. Instead, he had a whole flight of tiny glasses. Hecouldknock back six miniature beers in a row, but that would make it obvious that he was ditching, and they were in public, so someone would make a dumb internet post about it.

Grady had been a meme once. Someone had tried to pass through his legs while he was skating through the neutral zone, and he’d stepped on the puck and face-planted. He would prefer to avoid a repeat.

His date this afternoon was Tony, twenty-five, which Grady had decided was the lower limit for “you must be at least this old to ride.” Tony was beautiful, Grady would give him that. He had smooth skin and lean muscles and thick, dark eyelashes. He hadsmolder.

He wore a black sleeveless shirt that showed off the curve of his biceps and, when he moved right, a flash of nipple. It also drew plenty of attention to the big red heart-shaped tattoo on his forearm, which had the wordMomwritten in it, in scrolling font.

Grady didn’t want to ask about it, exactly. He figured if someone got a heart tattoo withMomin it, they’d probably been through some shit. Maybe the guy’s mom had had breast cancer or something. Grady knew about that kind of trauma, and it wasn’t a first-date topic. So he didn’t ask.

But he must’ve kept looking at it, because about five minutes into their date, Tony noticed him looking and beamed. “Cool, isn’t it?”

Caught off guard, Grady stammered, “Uh, yeah, it’s really… interesting.”

“I know, right?” Tony flexed his forearm. “I saw it in the artist’s flash book and I justhadto have it.”

“O-oh?” Grady asked. “I thought maybe you were really close to your mom or….”Or maybe we had something in common.

“Nah.” Tony flashed some expensive veneers. “I mean, my mom’s great. But I thought this was such an original piece, you know?”

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